Valery Aizenberg

Painter, graphic artist, object artist, performance artist, video artist, photographer, writer, critic. Born in the family of Khariton Aizenberg in the town of Bakhmach in the northern Ukraine (1947). Graduated from Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute (1971) and took up painting (early 1970s). Studied at Kharkiv Institute of Art and Industry (1972–76) and worked in Boris Churilov’s studio of Byzantine and Old Russian art in Kharkiv (1973–77). Moved to Moscow (1984). Took up abstract art (mid-1980s). Member of Hermitage (1986–88) and the Union of Artists (from 1988). Awarded residential grants by the Ministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany (1992, 1998) and Herzliya City Council in Israel (2002). Lived and worked in New York (1993–96). Took up video art (1995) and writing (1995), published a collection of stories called Heavenly Holidays (2003) and a novel called The Lodger (2007). Founded the Espace Programme with Natalia Turnova (1998) and the Escape Programme with Bogdan Mamonov, Anton Litvin and Liza Morozova (1999), winning the Black Square Prize (2003), first place in the Arsenal competition of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (2004) and representing Russia at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005). Lives and works in Moscow, New York and Tel Aviv. Contributed to exhibitions in the Soviet Union (from 1981) and abroad (from 1989). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Union of Artists in Kharkiv (1981–83) and Moscow (1985–88), Hermitage in Moscow (1987) and Bolshevo (1987), Labyrinth at the Palace of Youth in Moscow (1988), Labyrinth: Neue Kunst aus Moskau at Schloss Wotersen near Hamburg (1989), Exhibition of Five Moscow Artists at the Palace of Culture of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute in Moscow (1989), Geometry at the Kashirka Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1989), Eidos at the Palace of Youth in Moscow (1989), Drawings by Sixty-Six Moscow Artists at the Central House of the Artist in Moscow (1989), Moscow–Izhevsk at the Udmurt Republican Museum of Fine Arts in Izhevsk (1989), Form and Image: Exhibition of Graphic Art by Moscow Artists at the Nikanor Onatsky Regional Museum of Art in Sumy (1989), Art contemporain soviétique, peintres et sculpteurs at the Palais des Congrès in Versailles (1989), Scientific-Technical Progress and Art at the House of the Artist on Kuznetsky Most in Moscow (1990), Counter-Position in the Union of Artists Exhibition Hall at 25 Tverskaya Street in Moscow (1990), Without Concept at the Moscow Gallery in the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in Moscow (1991), Exhibition of Works by Moscow Artists at the Central House of the Artist in Moscow (1991), In Memory of Parajanov at the Central House of the Artist in Moscow (1991), Contemporary Artists to Malevich at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1991), Arte russe at the Galerie Albert in Paris (1991) and the Sidney H. Root Art Gallery in Brussels (1991), Kunst, Europa: 63 deutsche Kunstvereine zeigen Kunst aus 20 Ländern in Germany (1991), Exhibition of Six Moscow Artists at Le Cadre Gallery in Hong Kong (1991), Paths of Creativity: Exhibition of Moscow and Sumy Artists Dedicated to Kazimir Malevich at the Oleksandr Lazarevsky Museum for Regional Studies in Konotop (1991) and the Nikanor Onatsky Regional Museum of Art in Sumy (1992), Große Kunstausstellung NRW at the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf (1991, 1992), Still-Life at the Velta Gallery in Moscow (1992), Diaspora at the Central House of the Artist in Moscow (1992), Still-Lifes of the Late Twentieth Century at the Moscow Architectural Institute in Moscow (1992), Moscow Apartment at the A3 Gallery in Moscow (1992), Art in Penza and Environs at the Konstantin Savitsky Regional Picture Gallery in Penza (1992), Neues Labyrinth: 10 Künstler aus Russland at the Osteuropäisches Kulturzentrum in Cologne (1992), National Traditions and Postmodernism 1960–1990 at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1993), Art Myth 4 at the Central House of the Artist in Moscow (1993), Local Time Festival at 12 Petrovsky Boulevard in Moscow (1993), Colour and Form at the Lenin Museum in Moscow (1993), Bosporus Forum 1 in Kerch (1993), Neues Labyrinth: 12 Künstler aus Rußland at the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung Bildungsstätte Zündholzfabrik in Lauenburg (1993), Monumental Propaganda at the Central House of the Artist in Moscow (1993), Ajaloo Instituut in Tallinn (1994), Moderna galerija in Ljubljana (1994), Smithsonian Institution International Gallery in Washington DC (1995), Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina (1995), Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton (1996), Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach (1996), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City (1996), Helsingin taidemuseo in Helsinki (1997), Uppsala Konstmuseum in Uppsala (1997) and Kennesaw State University in Georgia (1998), Off the Mainstream at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York (1995), Material Evidence at the OIA Police Building Gallery in New York (1995), Reverse Perspective at the 8th Floor in New York (1996), Art in the Service of the Revolution at the A3 Gallery in Moscow (1997), Museum of an Unknown Artist at the Spider&Mouse Art-Space in Moscow (1997), Exhibition of Photography at the Orosz Kulturális Központ in Budapest (1997), Step at the Dar Gallery in Moscow (1998), Russian Landscape Painting of the Late Twentieth Century at the Galerie Russe du Centre in Geneva (1998), Galina Osetsimskaya Collection at Art Manège ‘99 in the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1999), Born, Married, Fell in Love: Pushkin in Moscow at the Zverev Centre in Moscow (1999), Nativity Play at the Guelman Gallery in Moscow (1999), Great Atrophy at the Hay-Art Cultural Centre in Gyumri (1999), Childhood Fears at the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art in Yerevan (1999), First International Plein-Air at the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum in Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta’ot (1999), Second International Plein-Air at the Museum of Russian Art in Ramat-Gan (1999), Christ is a Good Man at the Zverev Centre in Moscow (2000), Up-to-Date Russian Alphabet at the Dar Gallery in Moscow (2000), Galina Osetsimskaya Collection at the Moscow Centre of the Arts in Moscow (2000), Adaptation at the Andrei Sakharov Centre in Moscow (2001), Abstraction in Russia: XX Century at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2001–02), Exhibition of the Annamukhamed Zaripov Collection in the Moscow Gallery at 11 Kuznetsky Most in Moscow (2002), Space of the Object at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art in Moscow (2002), Vybor / Selection / Choice / Alternative at the Moscow International Forum of Artistic Initiatives in the New Manège Exhibition Hall in Moscow (2006), Art Moscow 10th International Art Fair at the Central House of the Artist in Moscow (2006), Linoleum International Festival of Contemporary Animation and Media Art in Moscow (2006), Made in the USSR – After the USSR at the Belka and Strelka Gallery in St Petersburg (2007), projects of the Espace Programme (1998–99) and Escape Programme (1999–2011), joint exhibitions with Yevgeny Gor at the L Gallery in Moscow (1989) and with Irina Danilova at the Regina Gallery in Moscow (1990) and one-man shows and performances at the Union of Artists in Kharkiv (1983), Lithographic Studio of the Union of Artists in Moscow (1986), Kizhi Island on Lake Onega in Karelia (1989), Galerie Ferenczy in Frankfurt-on-Main (1990), Galerie Forum Lindenthal in Cologne (1990), Luxemburgisches Schloss in Königstein im Taunus (1991), Art Myth 2 at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1991), Central House of the Artist in Moscow (1992), Creativity Exhibition Hall on Taganka in Moscow (1993), Schleswig-Holsteinisches Künstlerhaus in Selk (1993), Velta Gallery in Moscow (1993), Spaces Gallery in Cleveland (1993), Ukrainian Institute of America in New York (1993), Loft, Waterfront Area in New York (1994), Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken (1995), 8th Floor in New York (1996), Anyway Cafe in New York (1996), Institute of Modern Arts in Moscow (1996), KUKart Festival in Tsarskoe Selo (1997), Spider&Mouse Art-Space in Moscow (1997), Art Manège ‘97 in the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1997), Schleswig-Holsteinisches Künstlerhaus in Eckernförde (1998), Escape Gallery in Moscow (1999, 2000), Artists’ Residence in Herzliya (2003) and Prague Biennale I at the Veletržní palác in Prague (2003).